Full Description
Practical Legal Skills for Law Clinics Fifth Edition is a textbook for a Clinical Legal Education subject.
It covers the practical skills of lawyering, including interviewing, advising, advocacy, writing and drafting, and negotiation and mediation. The fifth edition also explores the ethical risks faced by clinical students and practitioners, and discusses the ethics, values and professional responsibilities surrounding the decisions lawyers' make.
Exercises throughout allow readers to practise the full range of skills required in every-day legal work. Clear and concise, Practical Legal Skills is the essential guide for preparing skilled and ethical lawyers in a rapidly changing environment of practice.
Contents
1. IntroductionThe role of skills teaching in legal educationContent and methodThe limitations of practical legal trainingEnjoying law schoolSkills and valuesSkills teaching: The distinction between ethical content and processTeacher and mentor valuesGood ethics does not mean being squeamishLearning with this book2. Interviewing: Listening and QuestioningThe structure of an interviewThe three-stage process of interviewingEthical dangers in interviewing 3. Interviewing: AdvisingSummarising the factsGiving adviceTechniques for arriving at decisionsBarriers to communicationProfessional rules and ethical considerations4. Keeping out of TroubleWhat sorts of ethical problems exist?Common ethical problem areasDealing with online security5. Writing and DraftingCommunication in writing: Why is it different?Emails and other electronic communication methodsDocument retentionEssential preliminariesEthical issues in letter writingHow to produce 'plain English'Words and sentencesStructuring a letterReports, memoranda, and other in-house documentsDrafting legal documents6. Negotiation and MediationNegotiatingMediationCollaborative law7. AdvocacyThe objective of advocacyMainstream Magistrates/Local Court: Guilty pleasFederal Circuit Court of Australia: Application to dispense with serviceSupreme Court: Interlocutory applications
